Canada’s escalating trade war with the U.S. was the top-of-mind topic Tuesday morning as federal Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon spoke to a business crowd, including representatives of major North Shore port industries, at an event hosted by the North Vancouver Chamber.

Canada announced $1 billion in counter tariffs on U.S. goods Tuesday, which go into effect Sept. 8, including 50 per cent tariffs on a wide range of U.S. products in response to the tariffs that country has placed on key Canadian goods.

MacKinnon said Canada will continue to try to negotiate a “comprehensive“ trade deal with the U.S. “Unfortunately such a deal is not available right now,” he said.

MacKinnon said Ottawa has announced $7.5 billion in supports for businesses and workers impacted by the trade war.

Longer term, Canada’s goal is to double its non-U.S. trade over the next 10 years.

That includes investing in infrastructure to make that happen, said MacKinnon, and cutting red tape standing in the way of major projects.

“British Columbia is Canada’s gateway to the Pacific and to some of the world’s fastest growing markets, particularly across the Asia-Pacific,” he said. “And the infrastructure here in Vancouver and North Vancouver is at the heart of that reality.”

MacKinnon said the government expects to introduce legislation this fall based on a discussion paper released this summer focused on fast tracking major projects.

Some of that will likely be controversial, he said.

Among the reforms suggested by the paper is a one-year timeline for all impact assessments, plus narrowing down some permit requirements.

“We want to modernize and build more efficiently, and that’s why we created the Major Projects Office,” said MacKinnon. “We can’t afford to take decades to build the infrastructure we need today.”

One of the projects Ottawa is keen to see built is the Port of Vancouver’s Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project. “That project would increase container handling capacity at the Port of Vancouver by about 50 per cent,” said MacKinnon, “really launching us into the world’s major leagues in terms of performance and port capacity.”

It would also “unlock” about $100 billion in additional trade capacity, plus thousands of jobs, he said.

“Those numbers are significant,” said MacKinnon. “They are core to the B.C. economy. And what matters most is what that capacity allows us to do. It gives Canadian businesses more options, it allows us to reach more markets, and it helps reduce our dependence on any single trading partner.”

As it is, the Port of Vancouver contributes nearly $12 billion to the province’s GDP, said MacKinnon, and is Canada’s largest and most important port.

“While we’re slugging it out with the U.S. on the trade front, we’re just going to keep quietly going about our work here, of building this country a lot stronger, a lot more quickly,” he said.

MacKinnon said Ottawa has been hearing frustration from businesses that are subject to years of regulatory approvals. “And in many cases, these are small projects, that really shouldn’t be subject to this, you know, years long kind of delay.”

MacKinnon said Canada still wants to make a fair trade deal with the United States. “Canada is a free trading nation by definition. But we will not tolerate being treated unfairly or arbitrarily, and that’s why our retaliation measures that we announced today are meant to be defensive against those very sectors that have been targeted, we think, illegally and unfairly by the United States,” he said.

“I think Canadians expect their government to stand up … in terms of defending ourselves against what is quite clearly illegal and unjustified action by our closest trading partner and ally.”